Mounties kept tabs on Occupy Ottawa

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OTTAWA, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police kept close tabs on Occupy Ottawa protesters in 2011, a records release shows.

Mounties built dossiers for the movement's organizers and participants by scouring social media and even interviewing campus security at Ottawa University where some of the planning for the protests took place, Macleans.ca said Monday.

The action was taken despite internal documents showing the RCMP didn't anticipate the protests would become violent, though fears were expressed about sanitation problems, drug use and sexual assaults.

The Occupy movement sprung up first in New York City where protesters angered by the widening gap between the ultra-wealthy "1 percent" and the rest of society staged a sit-in that turned into an encampment. The protests became a global phenomenon.